Mythology

"Damayanti was a princess who fell in love with the king Nala after hearing about his fame and virtues. She succeeded in her resolve to marry him, by correctly identifying him in the svayamvara although four gods had assumed Nala's appearance in order to marry Damayanti."

"And Nala, of courteous disposition, promised to do whatever they might desire. Then making a reverent gesture, he asked: "Who are ye, Noble Beings, who wish me to be your messenger? and tell me what 1 shall do?" Indra replied: "Know us to be the immortal gods, taking this journey for the sake of Damayanti. I am Indra; this one is Agni, the God of Fire; that one is Varuna, Lord of the Waters; and that one there is Yama, King of Death and the Under-world. Announce to Damayanti, will you? that we are coming — that we the Protectors of the World, the gods, Indra and the rest, have a great desire...to win yon. Choose, therefore, some one of those gods for your husband.""

"...after Nala had been chosen by Damayanti, the gods felt no offense; and being well disposed, promised Nala eight gifts. Indra gave Nala the power to see him bodily in sacrifice, and endowed him with the gait of a god when he walked. Agni, the Fire-God, gave him the power to have fire whenever he wished it, and promised him abodes in heaven as bright as his own light. Yama gave him wonderful skill in cookery, and an excellent devotion to right. Varuna, the Lord of Waters, gave him the power to have water whenever he should desire it. And all the gods together promised him two children."

"They [nine women in Hindu mythology] are Ahalya, Draupadi, Tara, Kunti, Mandodari, Sita, Savitri, Parvati, Damayanti, Maitreyi and Shakuntala. All of them were not held in the same degree of esteem and reverence. The first five women, known as pancakanya, may well be remembered in daily prayers but none of them is regarded as an ideal woman, at least not recommended by anyone for emulation by others."

"1 am known as Nala, Beautiful One, and have come here as a messenger of the gods. Indra, Agni, Varuna, and Yama desire to win you. Choose one of these, therefore, to be your lord in wedlock. For this. Good Lady, I am sent; and it was by their divine aid that I entered unnoticed and unhindered. You have heard all, Fair One. Decide as you wish."

"I see a way, O Prince, by which you will be safe and not at all at fault. O Best of Men, go back to the gods, and come with them to my Swayamvara."

"After these most excellent guests had gone, Bhima, the magnanimous, rejoicing, made the wedding for Damayanti and Nala."

"Nal [had] met the daughter of the great Naga serpent Vasuki. She wished to marry him, but he regarded her as his daughter because of his close friendship with her father, and he told her that he could marry her only if she would be reborn again as a human. She was reborn as a human princess named Damayanti, and when she was of age her father sent an invitation to Indra to come to her self-choice, but the swan carrying the invitation fell into Nal's hands instead. The king sent a second message to Indra, and both Indra and Nal arrived to claim Damayanti. Because Nal was human, Damayanthi was able to identify him despite Indra’s tricks."

"Nala and Damayanti married and she gave birth to twins, a boy and a girl. But the demon of gambling and bad luck (Kali) entered Nala when he neglected to wash his feet; he gambled away his kingdom, and he and Damayanti were forced to go to the forest. When birds, incarnations of the dice, stole the clothes he had been wearing, Damayanti wrapped him in the other half of the single cloth that she was wearing. One night, in despair, he cut the piece of cloth in half as she slept, leaving her with one half, and he abandoned her there."

"Than Nala made himself visible and told he was the messenger of the gods - though he did not say that he was Nala. When she asked him to stay, Nala revealed that he was Nala. And Damayanti who had blamed herself for her attraction to the messenger of the gods, was relived to find that it was in fact Nala."

"There are graphic descriptions of the beauties and terrors of the tropical forest in which Damayantī wanders. At last she finds her way back to her father's court at Kuṇḍina. Many and striking are the similes with which the poet dwells on the grief and wasted form of the princess in her separation from her husband. She is: Like the young moon's slender crescent Obscured by black clouds in the sky; Like the lotus-flower uprooted, All parched and withered by the sun; Like the pallid night, when Rāhu Has swallowed up the darkened moon."

"Nala, meanwhile, transformed into a dwarf, has become charioteer to the king of Oudh. Damayantī at last hears news leading her to suspect her husband's whereabouts. She accordingly holds out hopes of her hand to the king of Oudh, on condition of his driving the distance of 500 miles to Kuṇḍina in a single day. Nala, acting as his charioteer, accomplishes the feat, and is rewarded by the king with the secret of the highest skill in dicing. Recognized by his wife in spite of his disguise, he regains his true form. He plays again, and wins back his lost kingdom. Thus after years of adventure, sorrow, and humiliation he is at last reunited with Damayantī, with whom he spends the rest of his days in happiness."

"Though his reflection was clearly visible on the jeweled floor none noticed it among the portraits of him that had been painted by Damayanti's friends to divert her. Then Damayanti came upon him, but he could not distinguish her among the false Damayantis he saw, and she couldn't see him because he was invisible. She threw a garland at the neck of an illusory Nala [whom she imagined], but it fell on the neck of Nala, who was standing there. Nala was astonished to find the real garland from the woman he was imagining and she was surprised to see it disappear. They were in the same place, thinking that they were in different places."

"Damayanti half penetrated his disguise, and was at length convinced that he was her husband by the flavor of a dish which he had cooked. They met, and, after some loving reproaches and the interference of the gods, they became reconciled, and Nala resumed his form. He again played with Pushkara and staked his wife against the kingdom. Profiting from the knowledge he had obtained from Rituparna, he won back all and again became king."

"One of the oldest and most beautiful stories inserted in the Mahābhārata is the Nalopākhyāna, or "Episode of Nala." It is one of the least corrupted of the episodes, its great popularity having prevented the transforming hand of an editor from introducing Siva and Vishṇu, or from effacing the simplicity of the manners it depicts—the prince, for instance, cooks his own food—or from changing the character of Indra, and other old traits. The poem is pervaded by a high tone of morality, manifested above all in the heroic devotion and fidelity of Damayantī, its leading character. It also contains many passages distinguished by tender pathos."

"Some birds flew with his only garment. He resolved to abandon his wife in the hope that she would return to her father’s court, so he divided her sole remaining garment while she slept and left her."

"Thus left alone, Damayanti wandered about in great distress. She did not go home, but she at length found service and protection with the princess of Chedi. Nala fell in with the king of serpents, who was under a curse from which Nala was to deliver him. The serpent bit Nala, and told him that the poison should work upon him till the evil spirit has gone out of him, and that he should be restored to all he loved. Through the effects of the bite he was transformed into a misshapen dwarf. In this form he entered the service of Rituparna, king of Ayodhya, as trainer of horses and an accomplished cook, under the name of Bahuka."

"Nala, prince of Nishada, chosen from among many competitors for her hand by Damayantī, princess of w:Vidarbha Kingdom|Vidarbha, passes several years of happy married [[life with her. Then, possessed by the demon Kali, and indulging in gambling, he loses his kingdom and all his possessions. Wandering half naked in the forest with Damayantī, he abandons her in his frenzy. Very pathetic is the scene describing how he repeatedly returns to the spot where his wife lies asleep on the ground before he finally deserts her. Equally touching are the accounts of her terror on awaking to find herself alone in the forest, and of her lamentations as she roams in search of her husband, and calls out to him:"

"Damayanti was discovered and conducted to her father’s home, where she found her children. Great search was made for Nala, but in vain, for one knew him in his altered form. One Brahmin, however, suspected him, and informed Damayanti. She resolved to test his feelings by announcing her intention of holding a second swayamvara. King Rituparna determined to attend, and took Nala with him as driver of his chariot. Rituparna was skilled in numbers and the rules of chances. On their journey he gave a wonderful proof of this, and he instructed Nala in the science. When Nala had acquired this knowledge the evil spirit went out of him, but still he retained his deformity."

"Damana felt very kindly disposed; and, when he went away, promised them a 'jewel of* a girl' and three noble sons. And so it happened that Dama, Danta, and Damana, and Damayanti, the jewel of a daughter, came to gladden the house of King Bhima and his queen"

"Damayanti is the wife of Nala and heroine of the tale of Nala and Damayanti. She is also known by her patronymic Bhaimi."

"They married and for some time in great happiness, a son and daughter, Indra Sena and Indra-Sena, being born to them. Kali, a personification of Kali or the Iron age arrived too late for the Swayamvara. He resolved to be revenged and he employed his peculiar powers to ruin Nala through his love of gambling."

"At his instance Pushkara, Nala’s younger brother, proposed a game of dice. Kali charmed the dice, and Nala went on losing; but he was infatuated; the entreaties of friends and minsters, wife [Damayanti] and children were of no avail; he went on till he had lost his all, even to his clothes."

"As he caught hold of one, and thought, "What a fine dish of meat for my table to-day!" the swan, assuming a human voice, said: "You most not kill me, O King, for I will do you a favor. I will speak of you to Damayanti, so that she will never at any time love anybody but you." Nala at once let the swan go; and she with her companions flew up and off to the city of the Vidarbhans…"

"Nala and Damayanti were always wandering about like gods. A son and a beautiful daughter were given to them, as the gods had promised; and thus, the ruler of men, sacrificing and wandering about, protected the earth filled with treasure."

"His rival became king and proclaimed that no one was to give food or shelter to Nala, so the ruined monarch wandered forth in the forest with his wife (Damayanti) and suffered great privations."

"The marriage ceremony having taken place, Nala remained for a time at Bhima's court, passing the days most pleasantly. Finally, having been dismissed by Bhima (which is according to the Hindu notion of courtesy), he went to his own city. There the hero-king, happy and radiant as the sun, remained for a long time protecting his subjects in justice. He also worshiped the gods with horse-sacrifice, and with many other good deeds and acceptable gifts."

"Finally, her friends went with the matter to King Bhima. They announced that his daughter was ill. They had not heard what the swan had said to Damayanti, neither had the father. But he was a wise man, and began to consider that she was now old enough to marry, and that she was very, very beautiful, and must have a husband befitting her rank. So he decided to celebrate her Svayamwara' according to the custom of the early Hindus. At this Swayamvara, she was expected to choose for a husband from the kings and princes the one whom she liked best."

"Hero, valiant, knowing duty, To honour faithful, lord of earth, If thou art within this forest, Then show thee in thy proper form. Shall I hear the voice of Nala, Sweet as the draught of Amṛita, With its deep and gentle accent, Like rumble of the thunder-cloud, Saying "Daughter of Vidarbha!" To me with clear and blessed sound, Rich, like Vedas murmured flowing, At once destroying all my grief?"

"A detailed account of this adventure, attested with the signature of this eye-witness, was forwarded to Paris, but the members of the Institute, instead of accepting the testimony of a scientific observer of acknowledged credibility, concluded that the Florentine was either suffering under an attack of sunstroke, or had been deceived by a clever trick of acoustics... there is a verse in the Lotus* which says that "A Buddha is as difficult to be found as the flowers of Udumbara and Palaca," if we are to believe several eye-witnesses, such a phenomenon does happen. Of course its occurrence is rare, for it happens but on the death of every great Dalai-Lama; and these venerable old gentlemen live proverbially long lives. Vol. I, Ch. 12"

"Thus, like the revolutions of a wheel, there is a regular succession of death and birth, the moral cause of which is the cleaving to existing objects, while the instrumental cause is karma (the power which controls the universe, prompting it to activity), merit and demerit. “It is, therefore, the great desire of all beings who would be released from the sorrows of successive births to seek the destruction of the moral cause, the cleaving to existing objects, or evil desire.” p. 346, Part II, Religion"

"Early in the present century a Florentine scientist, a skeptic and a correspondent of the French Institute, having been permitted to penetrate in disguise to the hallowed precincts of a Buddhist temple, where the most solemn of all ceremonies was taking place, relates the following as having been seen by himself. An altar is ready in the temple to receive the resuscitated Buddha, found by the initiated priesthood, and recognized by certain secret signs to have reincarnated himself in a new-born infant. The baby, but a few days old, is brought into the presence of the people and reverentially placed upon the altar. Suddenly rising into a sitting posture, the child begins to utter in a loud, manly voice...: "I am Buddha, I am his spirit; and I, Buddha, your Dalai-Lama, have left my old, decrepit body, at the temple of . . . and selected the body of this young babe as my next earthly dwelling." Our scientist, being finally permitted by the priests to take, with due reverence, the baby in his arms, and carry it away to such a distance from them as to satisfy him that no ventriloquial deception is being practiced, the infant looks at the grave academician with eyes that "make his flesh creep," as he expresses it, and repeats the words he had previously uttered. Vol. I, Ch. 12"

"If the Pythagorean metempsychosis should be thoroughly explained and compared with the modern theory of evolution, it would be found to supply every "missing link" in the chain of the latter. But who of our scientists would consent to lose his precious time over the vagaries of the ancients. Notwithstanding proofs to the contrary, they not only deny that the nations of the archaic periods, but even the ancient philosophers had any positive knowledge of the Heliocentric system. The "Venerable Bedes," the Augustines and Lactantii appear to have smothered, with their dogmatic ignorance, all faith in the more ancient theologists of the pre-Christian centuries. But now philology and a closer acquaintance with Sanskrit literature have partially enabled us to vindicate them from these unmerited imputations. In the Vedas, for instance, we find positive proof that so long ago as 2000 B.C., the Hindu sages and scholars must have been acquainted with the rotundity of our globe and the Heliocentric system. Hence, Pythagoras and Plato knew well this astronomical truth; for Pythagoras obtained his knowledge in India, or from men who had been there, and Plato faithfully echoed his teachings. Vol. 1, Ch. I, p.8,"

"There was not a philosopher of any notoriety who did not hold to this doctrine of metempsychosis, as taught by the Brahmans, Buddhists, and later by the Pythagoreans, in its esoteric sense, whether he expressed it more or less intelligibly. Origen and Clemens Alexandrinus, Synesius and Chalcidius, all believed in it; and the Gnostics, who are unhesitatingly proclaimed by history as a body of the most refined, learned, and enlightened men, were all believers in metempsychosis. Socrates entertained opinions identical with those of Pythagoras; and both, as the penalty of their divine philosophy, were put to a violent death..."

"The rabble has been the same in all ages. Materialism has been, and will ever be blind to spiritual truths. These philosophers held, with the Hindus, that God had infused into matter a portion of his own Divine Spirit, which animates and moves every particle. Aristotle, notwithstanding that for political reasons of his own he maintained a prudent silence as to certain esoteric matters, expressed very clearly his opinion on the subject. It was his belief that human souls are emanations of God, that are finally re-absorbed into Divinity. Zeno, the founder of the Stoics, taught that there are “two eternal qualities throughout nature: the one active; or male, the other passive, or female: that the former is pure, subtile ether, or Divine Spirit; the other entirely inert in itself till united with the active principle. Vol. 1, Ch. I, p. 14"

"We find differences separating individual men greater, than the ever separated, closely allied animals, and hence also the evolution of qualities cannot be studied in men in the mass, but only in the continuing individual. The lack of power to make such a study leaves science unable to explain why some men tower above their fellows, intellectual and moral giants, unable to trace the intellectual evolution of a Shankarâchârya or a Pythagoras, the moral evolution of a Buddha or of a Christ."

"With reincarnation man is a dignified, immortal being, evolving towards a divinely glorious end; without it, he is a tossing straw on the stream of chance circumstances , irresponsible for his character, for his actions, for his destiny. With it, he may look forward with fearless hope, however low in the scale of evolution he may be today, for he is on the ladder to divinity, and the climbing to its summit is only a question of time; without it, he has no reasonable ground of assurance as to progress in the future, nor indeed any reasonable ground of assurance in a future at all. Why should a creature without a past look forward to a future? He may be a mere bubble on the ocean of time. Flung into the world from non-entity, with qualities of good or evil, attached to him without reason or desert, why should he strive to make the best of them? Will not his future, if he have one, be as isolated, as uncaused, as unrelated as his present? In dropping reincarnation from its beliefs, the modern world has deprived God of His justice and has bereft man of his security; he may be “lucky” or “unlucky” but the strength and dignity conferred by reliance on a changeless law are rent away from him, and he is left tossing helplessly on an un-navigable ocean of life. p. 242"

"Basing all his doctrines upon the presence of the Supreme Mind, Plato taught that the nous, spirit, or rational soul of man, being “generated by the Divine Father,” possessed a nature kindred, or even homogeneous, with the Divinity, and was capable of beholding the eternal realities. This faculty of contemplating reality in a direct and immediate manner belongs to God alone. The aspiration for this knowledge constitutes what is really meant by philosophy—the love of wisdom. The love of truth is inherently the love of good; and so predominating over every desire of the soul, purifying it and assimilating it to the divine, thus governing every act of the individual, it raises man to a participation and communion with Divinity, and restores him to the likeness of God.“ This flight,” says Plato in the Theeetetus, “ consists in becoming like God, and this assimilation is the becoming just and holy with wisdom.” Vol. I, Before the Veil, xv"

"A life of extreme hardship, of ceaseless struggle with nature, will develop very different powers from those evolved amid the luxuriant plenty of a tropical island; both sets of powers are needed, for the soul is to conquer every region of nature, but striking differences may thus be evolved even in souls of the same age, and one may appear to be more advanced than the other, according as the observer estimates most highly the more “practical” or the more “contemplative” powers of the soul, the active outward-going energies, or the quiet inward-turned musing faculties. The perfected soul possesses all, but the soul in the making must develop them successively, and thus arises another cause of the immense variety found among human beings. For again, it must be remembered that human evolution is individual. p. 202"

"The doctrine of Metempsychosis has been abundantly ridiculed by men of science and rejected by theologians, yet if it had been properly understood in its application to the indestructibility of matter and the immortality of spirit, it would have been perceived that it is a sublime conception. Should we not first regard the subject from the stand-point of the ancients before venturing to disparage its teachers? The solution of the great problem of eternity belongs neither to religious superstition nor to gross materialism. The harmony and mathematical equiformity of the double evolution — spiritual and physical — are elucidated only in the universal numerals of Pythagoras, who built his system entirely upon the so-called "metrical speech" of the Hindu Vedas. Vol. I, Ch. I, p.8"

"A heavy task lies before us, and beginning on the physical plane we shall climb slowly upwards, but a bird’s eye view of the great sweep of evolution and of its purpose may help us, ere we begin our detailed study in the world that surrounds us."

"Narrowing down our view to the chain of which our globe is one, we see life-waves sweep round informing the kingdoms of nature, the three elemental, the mineral, vegetable, animal, human. Narrowing down our view still further to our own globe and its surroundings, we watch human evolution, and see man developing self-consciousness by a series of many life-periods; then centering on a single man we trace his growth and see that each life-period has a threefold division that each is linked to all life-periods behind it reaping their results, and to all life-periods before it sowing their harvests, by a law that cannot be broken; that thus man may climb upwards with each life-period adding to his experience, each life-period lifting him higher in purity, in devotion, in intellect, in power of usefulness, until at last he stands where They stand who are now the Teachers, fit, to pay to his younger brothers the debt he owes to Them. p. 39"

"If it be admitted that the soul of the savage is destined to live and evolve, and that he is not doomed for eternity to his present infant state, but that his evolution will take place after death and in other worlds, then the principle of soul-evolution is conceded, and the question of the place of evolution alone remains."

"No one is born so high and perfect as not to commit any mistake or any sin. Every mistake like this opens our eyes to the laws of the universe by bringing to us such results as we do not desire. As one life is not enough to gain experience in all the stages of evolution, we must have to admit the doctrine of the Reincarnation of the soul for the fulfillment of the ultimate purpose of earthly life. (V. Theory of Transmigration)"

"The theory of Transmigration according to the Hindus, rejects this idea of the going back of human souls to animal forms... however... in India there are many uneducated people among the Hindus who believe that human souls do migrate into animal bodies after death to gain experience and reap the results of their wicked deeds, being bound by the law of Karma... The educated and thoughtful minds of India, however, accept the more rational and scientific theory of Reincarnation. (IV. Which is Scientific—Resurrection or Reincarnation?)"

"Although there are passages in the scriptural writings of the Hindus which apparently refer to the retrogression of the human soul into animal nature, still such passages do not necessarily mean that the souls will be obliged to take animal bodies. They may live like animals even when they have human bodies, as we may find among us many people like cats and dogs and snakes in human form and they are often more vicious than natural cats, dogs or snakes. They are reaping their own Karma and manifesting their animal nature, though physically they look like human beings. This kind of retrogression is possible for one who after reaching the human plane goes backward on account of wicked thoughts and deeds on the animal plane. (V. Theory of Transmigration)"

"Were all souls on earth at the same stage of evolution, much might be said for the contention that further worlds are needed for the evolution of souls beyond the infant stage. But we have around us souls that are far advanced, and that were born with noble mental and moral qualities. p. 108"

"For instance, if I do not know that fire burns, I may put my finger into it and get burned. The result of this mistake is the burning of the finger and this has taught me once for all that fire burns; I shall never again put my finger into fire. So every mistake is a great teacher in the long run. (V. Theory of Transmigration)"

"The theory of Reincarnation is a logical necessity for the completion of the theory of Evolution. If we admit a continuous evolution of a unit of the germ of life through many gross manifestations then we unconsciously accept the teachings of the doctrine of Reincarnation. In passing through different forms and manifestations the unit of life does not lose its identity or individuality. As an atom does not lose its identity or individuality (if you allow me to suppose an atom has a kind of individuality) although it passes from the mineral, through the vegetable, into the animal, so the germ of life always preserves its identity or individuality although it passes through the different stages of evolution. (III. Evolution and Reincarnation)"

"Human evolution is the evolution of the Thinker... At first, as little conscious as a baby’s earthly body, he almost slept through life after life, till the experiences playing on him from without awakened some of his latent forces into activity; but gradually he assumed more and more part in the direction of his life, until, with manhood reached, he took his life into his own hands, and an ever-increasing control over his future destiny. p. 131"